Christmas is coming, it must be time for Brussels!

We have come to the end of our growing year and the final crops to harvest were our sprouts and cabbages. Despite the onslaught of gulls and caterpillars over the summer, we still managed to produce a respectable bowl of Brussels and four healthy green cabbages.

The year one garden team delivered our harvested produced to the kitchen staff. The cabbages will be on the school menu this Wednesday and the Brussels sprouts will take pride of place on the Christmas lunch menu on Thursday.

Leaf litter collecting.

This afternoon, members of the KS2 Garden Team headed down to Fagley Community Centre to help collect leaf litter to compost. Armed with rakes and spades, they managed to collect two huge bagfuls. The eagle eyed children spotted a whole host of mini beasts hiding out amongst the autumn leaves including earthworms, ladybirds and earwigs. Next job on the list was to plant some garlic in the Community Centre vegetable beds. Pete also gave us some cloves to take back to school to add to the ones planted by the year one children yesterday.

The wellingtons donated so far were a put to good use as it was very muddy underfoot (much to the children's pleasure). We still need lots more wellies though and we are looking at ways of increasing our stocks. In the meantime any further donations of boots (and waterproofs) will be gratefully received.

Marie Curie Pots of Care

As well as the garden team planting bulbs in the school garden, every child has planted a daffodil as part of the Marie Curie Pots of Care campaign. Over the coming months the children will nurture their daffodils and with a bit of luck they will be in full bloom in time for our Marie Curie Pots of Care day in February. It promises to be a colourful event, so watch this space for more information!

Morrison's Let's Grow Campaign

Our families have done us proud again this year collecting Let's Grow vouchers. In previous years we have manage to buy fruit trees and bushes, vegetable seeds, hand tools, trugs, gloves and many more things.
This year we are hoping to buy some more fruit trees to add to our mini orchard and possibly some wellingtons to add to our welly bank. We are nearing 3000 vouchers to date and with another month in which to get the vouchers in we are aiming to reach 3500.

Harvest Big Sing Assembly

We awoke to the first heavy frosts of the Autumn today. Thankfully we harvested the last of our tender crops on Tuesday in preparation for the Harvest Big Sing assembly.
Our produce was on display outside the hall for the parents and children to see. There was also a rather impressive mound of tins and cans donated by parents for our Bradford Food Bank Collection.
The assembly, led by Miss Long, was wonderfully uplifting with songs such as 'cauliflowers fluffy' getting everyone tapping their toes.
A few parents expressed an interest in volunteering in the school garden, but childcare seems to be an issue. Maybe for the next volunteer day, we could look at the possibility of providing a creche facility to enable these parents to get involved.

Get Your Grown-ups Growing Day.

The rather wild weather did not deter a few brave parents from coming to lend a hand in the school garden.

Pete Tatham from Fagley Youth & Community Centre also came to show his support. The parents and their children along with some of the members of the school garden team, got to work clearing out the veg beds, sowing winter peas and planting some spring bulbs. We have planted irises, bluebells, tulips and daffodils, so we can look forward to a splash of colour on the school playing fields come the spring.
We also harvested the last of of summer crop which will be on display and the harvest assembly tomorrow.
Class 6 with the help of Mrs. Capuvanno, baked a delicious chocolate cake for the gardening volunteers to enjoy.
I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to the parents who came to help out and hopefully those who could not make it this time, will be able to join us in the school garden next time. Willing hands are always welcome!

Welly Appeal

Do you have any wellingtons lying around at home that your children have grown out of? As part of our commitment at Fagley Primary to encourage children to enjoy the outdoors whatever the weather, we are aiming to build up a welly bank.

So, if you have just dug out last winter's wellies and realised they are too small, rather than throw them away, why not drop them into school.

Get Your Grown-ups Growing Event Tuesday 18th October 2011.

We are hosting a 'Get Your Grown-ups Growing' event at Fagley Primary between 1pm and 3pm on Tuesday 18th October.
We will be harvesting the last of our summer crops, digging over the vegetable beds and planting some new crops to see us through the winter months.
We will also planting some spring bulbs to brighten up the school field and making leaf mulch. Whether you are a gardening novice or Fagley's answer to Alan Titichmarsh, you are more than welcome to come and lend a hand. If you would like to be involved in the school garden, but are not available on the 18th, please let us know and we can keep you informed of future events. Miss Worthington and members of our garden team will be on hand to tell you what we have been up to in the school garden this year and our plans for next year. We would also welcome suggestions from what you would like to see happening in the school garden.

Mrs Capuvanno and members of the hugely talented Year 6 baking team will be making some delicious cakes and buns for you to sample.

If you have any questions, please pop into school and have a chat with myself (Miss Worthington) or Mrs Verity, or email the school at fagleyprimary@yahoo.co.uk or call us on 01274 771124.

Should we experience severe weather on the day, the event may need to be postponed.

RHS Get Your Grown Ups Growing Campaign

This October, Fagley Primary will be taking part in the RHS Get Your Grown Ups Growing Campaign. We are going to be sowing our overwintering vegetables, planting spring bulbs and fruit trees and much much more. So if you have green fingers, why not call into school and speak to Michaela or Mary about how you can get involved

Bog Gardening Planting

The wonderful weather continued into the afternoon and our gardening team were back out along with the Forest School group to plant up the new bog garden.
Kate from BCEP, was on hand again to tell the children all about the new additions to the bog garden. We have planted an array of marsh loving plants including purple loostrife, yellow flag iris, horse tail and water mint. So next year, we can look forward to a riot of colour in our bog garden which will hopefully attract some new wildlife to our school grounds.

Here is what some of our bog plants will look like when in flower next year:

Marsh Horsetail



Purple Loosestrife



Water Mint



Yellow Flag Iris





Glorious Gardening Weather

Our gardening team was greeted with positively glorious weather today for our walk down to Fagley Youth Centre. Pete Tatham has been overseeing the development of the Youth Centre vegetable garden and was delighted to welcome our team and share his experience of vegetable growing in Fagley. Since March this year, Pete has been kept busy filling the two poly tunnels and multitude of raised beds (many of which he has constructed himself) with a wide range of vegetables, some familiar to our children and some new and exciting varieties.

The children took great pleasure in hunting among the nasturtiums for ripe green french and runner beans. And who could resist having a little taste? Two children were even persuaded to try their very first tomato.

There was just time for a spot of watering (with Pete's homemade nettle liquid fertilizer) before heading back to school, spotting some signs of autumn along the way.

Can we dig it? Yes, we can!

The day finally arrived for the great bog garden dig and the recent wet weather has certainly helped the boggy conditions!
The top soil had been delivered the previous day and was steaming rather impressively in the corner of the playground.
Despite the persistent rain, we were blessed to have a group of willing volunteers from staff to mums and dads, big sisters and cousins.
The day began with an introduction to what we hoped to achieve through the day and a brief health and safety talk.
Kate from BCEP, had already marked out the site of the bog garden and so our first task was to remove the turf from the area. This was piled up ready for use later to edge the bog garden.

Next job was to dig down roughly 30cm and remove the soil, discarding any large stones along the way.
By mid morning and with a steady stream of new helpers lending a hand, the bog area was dug out.
We gathered quite an audience during break time as the children were fascinated to watch the development of another exciting focal point in the playground.

We then moved on to constructing a trench around the perimeter of the bog garden in which the edge of the weed proof membrane and pond liner would be buried.
After laying the weed proof membrane came the highly enjoyable task of smoothing down the pond liner. It was at this point, the temptation to build a nice relaxing jacuzzi rather than a bog garden, was almost overwhelming!
By lunchtime we had filled in the trench around the bog garden and started to put a layer of topsoil over the pond liner.
At this point, we bid farewell to some of our super morning helpers, whilst the rest of us took a well earned break.
Our afternoon team was somewhat smaller, but thankfully we had made good progress across the morning and were still on schedule.
The main jobs for the afternoon were to back fill the hole with the original soil and topsoil and build up the lower edge of the bog garden to help retain the water.
Our trusty team soldiered on through the rain showers and by the end of the school day we were about done.
The bog garden will need a few weeks to settle and become boggy (which shouldn't be a problem if the rain continues!) before we can begin planting up with the children. Kate had some great suggestions for bog loving plants including water mint, flag irises and snake head fritillary.

New Year for the Fagley Gardening Team

We may not have had the greatest summer, but the veg plot certainly hasn't objected to all the rain!

We return to fine some truly mammoth courgettes and runner beans and even the sweetcorn plants have come on great. The tomato plants are weighed down with fruits though a little more sunshine is in order before they ripen.

 

The strawberries haven't fared so well due to the constant attention of the ever present gulls and pigeons and we seriously need to consider ways of discouraging the local feline population.

Over the next few weeks, the garden team will meet to harvest the produce and tidy up the veg beds. We also need to think about the winter crops we we like to grow.

fagleygardeners' photostream

fagleygardeners' photostream on Flickr.

A lovely day in the garden.

It has been a very busy day in the garden today. Kate from BCEP came to talk to us about installing a bog garden below the slope where the fruit trees are planted. If all goes to plan (and with the help of some willing volunteers) the bog garden will be dug in early September.

We also have a very exciting delivery. Lots of lovely logs. The guys from Eldwick Joinery Service have been beavering away, building a log circle, stepping stones, den building posts and a fabulous log 'throne' seating area. Piccies to follow.

Groups of children from each class came out to join us in the garden and carry out some maintenance. There was lots of weeding, feeding and watering to do. We also sowed some more radishes and some spinach and carrots.

The children in Year One were excellent pest detectors and managed to spot some caterpillar eggs on the brassicas.

Weeding and Label Making

Over the spring bank holiday, a delightfully quaint fence was erected around our veg beds. It has really helped to stop the children using the beds as a climbing frame, shame it can't keep the pigeons at bay too!!

Our veggies planted in May are making good progress, with some strawberries already ripening.
However the weeds are doing rather well too.
Today, the children tackled some of the many weeds that have shot up since the recent spell of sunshine and showers. There is plenty more weeding though.

The KS2 Gardening Leaders have been busy making labels for our veg beds. They have been using the Internet to search for interesting facts about our veggies.

When the Garden Leaders have finished typing up their labels the KS1 garden club members are going to illustrate them with some lovely drawings.

2011 Gardening again.

There have been quite a few changes since my last post.
There are big plans afoot at Fagley Primary to improve the school grounds and offer a plethora of new and exciting learning opportunities for the children.

Along with the installation of new multi games nets, there as been the installation of a fantastic new outdoor classroom/gazebo and the re-siting of the veg beds on the school field.

A few weeks ago, a variety of young fruit trees were planted and this week, children from each class across the school were involved in weeding and planting up the veg beds.

In order to ensure the vegetables are well looked after, three children from each class (five from year 6) have been appointed to oversee the day to day tasks. The children have been organised into three teams, hedgehogs, ladybugs and bumblebees. They will follow a rota of six tasks overseeing two tasks per team each week.
These tasks are:

• Watering


• Pest Patrol


• Planting, sowing and harvesting


• Tool tidying


• Weeding


• Blogging and logging

Phew, so that's the theory. We will have to wait and see how it works out in practice

So far, the children have planted mimulas, pansies, petunias and marigolds in the Reception planters and herb bed.

In the veg beds they have planted, courgettes, strawberries, broccoli, cabbage, sprouts, french beans, sweetcorn and radish.

We had a lovely sunny morning in which to carry out the work followed by a good drenching in the afternoon. The weekend has proved incredibly windy however, so fingers crossed that our tender crops have survived!